


Five Times People Reacted to Zombaby's Name

by Emma_Oz



Category: Z Nation (TV)
Genre: 5 Things, Gen, Names, Zombaby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:36:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27556978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emma_Oz/pseuds/Emma_Oz
Summary: DesertScribe asked for a fic with baby Lucy and Hector the Scorpion.  Although they do not meet in this fic, it does cover a lot of people thinking about little Lucy, including Hector.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Five Times People Reacted to Zombaby's Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertScribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertScribe/gifts).



Shortly after Lucy’s birth…

Murphy looked at Lucy’s blue face. ‘Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do.’ He chuckled at this own joke. 

Addy barely waited til they were out of earshot before she pulled a face. 'He named her after I Love Lucy.’

Vasquez raised an eyebrow.

'Lucille Ball was funny and all, but the punchline of that show is always Lucy being threatened with violence.'

Vasquez shrugged. 'Good training for reality then.’

Addy twirled her Z whacker. ‘She has us to take care of her.’

‘Think of her as named after Lucy Lawless.'

'The Xena chick? That would be cool.'

'Being a super warrior princess would be pretty perfect.'

Vasquez pointed to the east. 'I think Doc has found a working pump. Let's see if it's running.'

Addy smiled. 'Our gift for the little zombaby.'

AAA

When Lucy was two weeks old…

Doc was humming softly as they walked through the grassland. 

10K looked across at him and blinked blankly. Doc knew him well enough to answer his question.

'The Beatles,' he said.

10K showed no sign of recognition so he clarified. 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.'

10K still looked blank; it was almost his default expression. Doc sang a few lines very quietly, so as not to attach zombie attention. He smiled. Music was the thing from before he missed most. That and not being chased by puppies and kittens of course.

‘Kaleidoscope eyes. That song is weird. Like Lucy.’ 10K smiled at him as he rarely did. ‘Sing some more.’

Doc sang on, quietly and happily. 

AAA

Three months after Lucy’s birth…

Hector was still trying to get a handle on Murphy. The man's motivations were opaque in the first place, with an overlay of crazed hybrid zombie on top. Self interest seems to be his defining feature, but Hector wanted to probe further.

'So he ran off with his daughter? Did he abandon her?'

'Lucy? No, of course not,' 

Warren was scanning the horizon. Hector followed her gaze. There was a dust cloud to the north. It could be wind, could be Zs, could even be humans which was potentially equally threatening.

'He left her in a safe place, with some farmers.'

Hector wondered if this was the kind of farm people used to send old dogs to. Warren must have read his face because she added, ‘He really does love Lucy.’

Hector remembered the image of St Lucy in the church his mother had always tried to get him to attend. He could never have prayed like her, her lips moving and her worn hands counting her black rosary, but the image of St Lucy was burned into his mind. Her face staring at him, sightlessly. Her bloody hands holding the martyr’s palm. Her eyes offered on a platter like hors d’oeuvres being passed around at a party. Patron saint of the blind which is what Warren was if she thought Murphy cared for anyone but himself. 

St Lucy had cut her own eyes out rather than go through with the marriage arranged by father. Sacrificed herself for the old man's whims, just like his own endlessly suffering mother. Named after the light but seeing nothing.

Hector made an impatient gesture. There was no point in introspection. There was only survival; the only direction was forwards.

AAA

Twelve months after Lucy’s birth…

Roberta would not have admitted it to Murphy under torture - which was something she had experienced both pre- and post-apocalypse, thank you very much - but Murphy had chosen well when naming little Lucy. He had hit upon one of her favourite names.

She took a shallow breath. It was important to make no noise as there was a small hoard of puppies and kittens passing by. Only a few hundred, but still enough to mob them if they were attracted to the shed where they were holed up. The trick in these cases was to stay alert to the Zs but distance yourself from your circumstances.

So Roberta thought about Lucy the Valiant, Daughter of Eve, Queen of Narnia. What was it Lucy had said? ‘I think – I don’t know – but I think I could be brave enough.’

She had read the books dozens of times as a kid, and if she tried she could probably reconstruct the story. She took another quiet breath. The story began with the Pevensie children arriving at the great house in the country, evacuated from dangers. The youngest, and kindest, of the children was Lucy, and she wound up a Queen, loved by her people and known as the Valiant. Maybe their Lucy would one day, maybe this was not the end.

Robert breathed lightly, both present and not present, in this terrible place.

AAA

Three weeks after Lucy’s birth…

Lucy smiled at Murphy. At least maybe it was a smile; or maybe wind. It was hard to tell.

He patted her back gingerly. 'We're gonna find you a nice place to live,' he said, 'With sunflowers and nursery rhymes and puppies and kittens and all that shit. Stuff.' He paused. 'Probably not puppies and kittens.'

He tried to pass her back to Cassandra but she began to grizzle. No need to turn her into a zombie attracting bundle of screaming, so he held her closer.

'Do you know why? Because you are someone special. You're like Lucy the hominid, the mother of us all.'

He slid her closer to his chest. 'You see, a while back, before the Zs, they found the fossils of the first hominid. They named her Lucy. She was the earliest ancestor of humans. She was the first creature to walk upright. She lived in Africa and we are all descended from her.

Every human on Earth is descended from Lucy. A rapidly decreasing number but there you go.

And here you are, Lucy. Just as important in your own way because you have natural immunity. You are the future of evolution, the pivot point in evolution.’

He took a breath. 'The future of mankind, Lucy. The future of - Oh man, Lucy, did you just poop?'

**Author's Note:**

> I Love Lucy ran 1951-1957 and Xena: Warrior Princess, starring Lucy Lawless, ran 1995-2001.
> 
> Doc is referencing ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ (1967), one of the greatest psychedelic songs.
> 
> Roberta is of course thinking of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950). 
> 
> St Lucy was an early Christian martyr and saint who died in the early fourth century. Hector has conflated her story with those of other virgin martyrs – he was not good at going to church. Before her death, she took her own eyes out in order to discourage a persistent suitor who admired them. She is the patron saint of the blind; martyrs; epidemics; salesmen; throat infections; and writers (so lucky for me). Check out the many images of her, holding up her eyes proudly.
> 
> Lucy an early Australopithecine dated to about 3.2 million years ago. The fossil was found in 1974 in the Rift Valley in Ethiopia. The skeleton presents a small skull, plus evidence of a walking-gait that was bipedal and upright. Lucy acquired her name from the song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ which was playing at the expedition camp.
> 
> Jennifer Derwingson, a producer and writer on Z Nation, confirmed that Lucy the zombaby was named after Lucy the australopithcine. See After Buzz, 11 October 2015.


End file.
